Will's Wedding

Apologies for the lack of posts, but September has been crazy busy.

In late August I went home for the first time in eight months for my brother’s wedding. I expected more of a culture shock when I arrived in San Francisco after being in rural Guatemala for the majority of the year. But to be honest, it was just like I left it. My friends were still there, the good places to eat hadn’t changed, and we wound up going out to the same bars that we had always gone to. The only thing that changed was that the Giants were winning. Maybe I should stay down here for a little longer…for the good of the franchise.

I did notice that everything was cleaner in the U.S. than in Guatemala: less trash strewn everywhere, less burning plastic, less gritty. Also, it felt nice to be surrounded by English speakers and people who didn’t make me feel like Andre the Giant.

I spent the following week on the Monterey Peninsula for my brother’s wedding. Will, my brother, did an amazing job planning and threw a great party. We sampled local wines one night, had a beachfront sunset cocktail party the next, and shared the wedding ceremony on the third day in the gardens of an old Monterey adobe that also serves as the Monterey Museum of Art. Truly an amazing week.

Coming back to Guatemala was not as tough as I though it would be. On the contrary actually, I looked forward to getting back. However, no sooner did I get to site did I get sick again. We think it’s some kind of virus (maybe related to mononucleosis) and really didn’t make it easier to settle back in for the next year and a half. Getting sick down here is probably the worst thing in the world because it totally blows up your perspective on everything and really gets you down. But oh well, I always know to expect it when I get sick, so now it’s just a matter of getting better, which I’ve already started to do.